Improvement in machines for stamping figures on the soles of boots and shoes



Patented Feb. 3, 1874.

L. G. SWET T. Machines for Stamping Figures on the Soles oif Boots and hoes.

In ire utov;

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LIJIVIS Gr. SIVETT, OF LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT lN MACHINES FOR STAMPING FIGURES ON THE SOLES 0F BOOTS AND SHOES.

v Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 147,196, dated February 3, 1874; application filed October 17, 1873.

To all whom it may concern:

Beit known that I, LEwrs G. Swn'r'r, of Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Machine for Stamping Figures on the Soles of Boots and Shoes; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention sufficient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

In marking numbers on boot and shoe soles, it is customary to use dies held in the hand and struck by a hammer. In selecting and handling these dies, the marking-operation is necessarily slow, and mistakes are often made by the use of wrong dies. In my invention I use a machine having a vertical wheel, from the periphery of which extend the metal dies or types for the numbering, while on the face of the wheel are numbers corresponding to the dienumbers, each type having in front of and in line with it anumber corresponding to the number on the die. The die-wheel turns 011 a pin extending from a head at the top of a long vertical slide moving in guides extending from an upright, a foot-piece extending from the slide, and enabling the die-wheel to be drawn down by. pressure of the foot, a suitable spring throwing it back. Under the wheel is a toe rest for supporting the toe of the boot or shoe,

and .by placing the toe of the boot or shoe upon this rest with the sole uppermost, and drawing down the slide by foot, the number is pressed into the sole. A suitable spring'catch retains the wheel in position for using any die or type:

The invention consists in a boot or shoe marking machine having a die-wheel thus arranged.

The drawing represents a machine embodying the invention.

Figure 1 shows the mechanism in front elevation. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of it.

a denotes an upright, at the front of which is a long vertical slide, 1), moving in suitable bearings 0 (Z. At the top of the slide is the head piece or plate, e, from which extends a pin, f, having mounted upon it the type or die wheel g. This wheel has extending from its periphery types or diesh, on the outer ends of which are the respective numbers to be used in marking, and on the face of the wheel, opposite or in linewith each type, is seen a number corresponding to the number on the type end. The upper bearing a is made with a seat, 6, for supporting the boot or shoe toe, and the slide 1) is made capable of vertical movement sufficient to carry the bottom type or die down against the sole-surface standing over the rest 1', the downward movement of the slide being produced by pressure of the foot upon a foot piece, 7., and its upward movement being produced by a spring. The wheel turns freely on the pin f, and is held in any desirable position by a pin, 1, extending from a spring, m, into any one of a series of holes, a, made in the back of the'wheel, the spring being pressed back to release the wheel. By means of the wheel and the mechanism thus arranged, the

marking or stamping of the numbers may be very rapidly efi'ected without liability to use the wrong die, and by having the numbers upon the face of the wheel any die may be quickly brought into position for operation.

I claim- The marking or stamping machine having a rotative type or die wheel, 9, connected with the slide I), and a stationary toe-rest, the typenumbers being upon the face of the Wheel opposite to the respective types or dies, and the wheel being operated by the slide, substantially as described.

LEWIS G. SWETT.

Witnesses FRANCIS GOULD, M. W. FROTHINGHAM. 

